Children (and adults) have short attention spans. It is difficult for them to pay attention to a laborious process that takes years to master. Reading is difficult for American children because the way a word is pronounced bears only a passing relationship to the way it is written. Children as well as illiterate adults are overwhelmed by a system of reading that is based as much as hieroglyphics (i.e. sight recognition) as on phonics. European children, on the other hand, have their language written phonetically. While American children are struggling at a "Dick and Jane" level, European children are reading from the classics. Our schools do not recover from this handicap. American University students are at the educational level of European high school students. Many American children never learn to read adequately. Functional illiteracy is a heavy burden for these children to carry when the reach adulthood, and a problem for this country as well, both socially and economically.
The invention of the present application provides non-pictorial short-stroke symbols, acting as phonic helpers, that give a logical framework upon which one can rapidly learn to read. In the same way that training wheels aid to the process of learning to ride a bicycle, thse non-pictorial short-stroke symbols aid in the process of learning to read.
This system supplements, it does not replace, correct spelling. The student is reading from great or popular literary works, instead of "Dick and Jane". These works are far more stimulating, and thus he reads more. The more he reads, the quicker he recognizes words by sight, and he no longer depends on the non-pictorial short-stroke symbols. The student will be encouraged and motivated by his rapid progress.
An earlier attempt to provide a method for the teaching of reading is that of Hoffman. Hoffman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,451, requires eight varieties of typeface and over seventy characters to effect a phonic alphabet. In Hoffman, the numerous typeface styles are required in order to adequately represent the many variations of pronunciation in individual letters (e.g. there are eight typeface forms for the letter "O"). Unlike Hoffman, the invention of the present application utilizes non-pictorial short-stroke symbols, rather than variations in typeface, to effect vowel and diphthong pronunciation.